Will trade Kerry beauty spot for luxury car

A beautiful plot of land for sale in Sneem, County Kerry, comes with an unusual caveat. The owner wants a Bentley Continental GT.

Former racing driver John Gould, who now lives in Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, acquired the land in a trade for his Aston Martin at the local pub some years back.

Now he says he wants to trade the land for the Bentley because he will never have the chance to live on the land.

Gould was unable to get planning permission for the site, which also features an abandoned Famine cottage, because of rules which only allow local residents to build in the area.

He told the Irish Times that he made the trade 12 years ago over a couple of whiskeys.

“I met the owner of the land in the pub and he liked the car I was driving, an Aston Martin DB24, and we made the swap over a couple of whiskeys.”

Gould then went back to Britian and forgot about the land.

“Around two years later I went to my solicitor, who thought I’d been had, but he made contact with the landowner and everything worked out.”

“It’s two or three years since we’ve been over in Kerry. It’s the loveliest bit of land with views out across the bay and the local pub, the Blind Piper, is the best pub in the world. I had visions of setting up in a house there writing books, but now we’re living in a tropical paradise, which isn’t too bad either.

“I’d quite like a new Bentley, and maybe someone else who has one would like to live in a house in the Ring of Kerry.”

Gould reckons the value of the car he is looking would be about €75,000.